Forum Discussion
PrivatePilot
Aug 05, 2011Explorer
This is totally OT to the thread, but one of the biggest changes I've made since becoming more battery conscious was upgrading all my lighting (interior and exterior) to LED's. I purchased 2X2 LED pannels (surface mount, 20 or 30 LED's on each) on eBay for a few dollars each and hacked one into each half of my interior lighting (so half is LED low draw, the other old fashioned incandescent still), and all exterior lighting. At only 0.3 amps each (I personally measured them), I can light up the entire trailer inside and out for about the same draw as one or two of the old bulbs.
This alone made a big difference on how much I'd need to run the genny the next day to recover the batteries.
The biggest draws in our 5'er now is the inverter and the furnace, when we use it - we tend to camp very early and very late into the season so it *does* get used a lot. The wife has a thing for TV in the evenings after she retires, so the inverter usually spends a few hours a day on, and I also like being able to make a pot of coffee at 6-7AM without needing to start the generator and annoy everyone - add in running a fan all night long to move air around in the trailer (again, when camping in non-hydro areas) and you can quickly end up with even a set of golf cart batteries like we have depleted to 50% the next morning.
This alone made a big difference on how much I'd need to run the genny the next day to recover the batteries.
The biggest draws in our 5'er now is the inverter and the furnace, when we use it - we tend to camp very early and very late into the season so it *does* get used a lot. The wife has a thing for TV in the evenings after she retires, so the inverter usually spends a few hours a day on, and I also like being able to make a pot of coffee at 6-7AM without needing to start the generator and annoy everyone - add in running a fan all night long to move air around in the trailer (again, when camping in non-hydro areas) and you can quickly end up with even a set of golf cart batteries like we have depleted to 50% the next morning.
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